Baby Steps and Exercise

[yewberry]

I have one of these in orange.

Ooo, pretty.

*has never been on bike bar crawls*

Like nanos?

Brina (helping make exercise worthwhile)

[Dark Midnight]

*hugs*

How close is the nearest pool, and is it open year-round?  Could you go more often than you do now, or is it too much with your schedule?

Also, for the record, chicken wrangling counts too.

 
It does? No one told me that! Ok, add taking care of my chickens to the exercise list.

The local pool is about 2 miles away (not bad right?) but it is FREEZING! Even in summer. Penguins would get frostbite in that thing! The nearest warm pool is only about 10 miles awy, but it has very peculiar opening times (all day at weekends and in the school holidays but set times through the week othwerwise). Day times are reserved for classes (schools and OAP's), so I could only go in an evening, which isn't feasable right now.

So, at the moment, I'm a bit stuck. I'll manage though. I always do.

[savveir]

*puts on a t-shirt that says, "Nurture yourself NOW!  Ask me HOW!"*

I'm really glad you started this thread, coupled with the in chat nudging I actually went out did stuff last night. Guess what I went for a walk again today and I felt excited about it.
Something in my head must have just clicked into place last night because I'm inclined to keep going out for walks and such. Looking after myself has always been hard, especially when my stress levels get up, I'd never before experienced this whole exercise making you feel better/happier. Well I do now, and it's been the boost I needed to get out of my swirly pit of doom.
The best part is that every step is literally helping me look after myself and get me to where I want to be.

Thanks Veggie, I don't know how you do it but damn it works well

[Nachtigall]

It's time for another baby steps thread!

Exercise is my arch-enemy but, in order to nurture myself (and my Dark Flame) I need to do something.  I need to get up and move from time to time in a purposeful way that doesn't involve "let's walk to the State Store for another bottle of wine."

(Although, walking to get a bottle of wine is preferable to driving to get one, right???)

This week, I started purposefully doing (or trying to do) a series of 15 minute exercises (streamed from Amazon).  I've done one each day for three days now and while I feel like the lovely woman in the video is trying to kill me, I'm also having fun with it.  I'm also planning to add swimming back in, starting next week, 3 days a week.

So, what do you do?  Is there something you'd like to do, but haven't started?  Let's post our baby steps toward greater body movement here!

 
I got a gym membership recently - my doctor suggested it as a way to help with my depression/anxiety, it's cheaper here than I thought it would be, and as for now I actually have the time - I work at a part-time job - to go there 2-3 times a week, I decided to give it a try. It's actually rather enjoyable so far (surprisingly to me - I've used to think of exercise as my arch-enemy as well, truly hating the gym classes at school).

Other than that, I try eating healthy, walking whenever I can instead of taking a bus, and doing yoga and going to local swimming pool occasionally.

[Shadow]

So, what do you do?  Is there something you'd like to do, but haven't started?  Let's post our baby steps toward greater body movement here!

(Hope you don't mind me joining in)

I used to love exercise when I was a teenager and was very active, now though I just seem to struggle to find the motivation or the energy.

I do have some dance games for the PS3, and I love dancing, so my baby step is to attempt to do half hour on one of the games at least 3 times a week.

[veggiewolf]

(Hope you don't mind me joining in)

Of course not!  The more, the merrier!

I used to love exercise when I was a teenager and was very active, now though I just seem to struggle to find the motivation or the energy.

I do have some dance games for the PS3, and I love dancing, so my baby step is to attempt to do half hour on one of the games at least 3 times a week.

 
We have them, too but I just never got into DDR. *shrugs*

[Fier]

Like nanos?

Brina (helping make exercise worthwhile)

 
This place has been popping up in conversations lately, so it is really funny that you mention it! I kept calling it the "Monkey Bar" last weekend because I couldn't remember the name. It is so conveniently close to the mountain bike trail....

[yewberry]

This place has been popping up in conversations lately, so it is really funny that you mention it!

Well, actually Google mentioned it and I mentioned it here.    Nanos are huge here, so I like to look 'em up elsewhere.  If I'm ever in Lansing, I'll buy you a beer.

Brina

[veggiewolf]

Well, actually Google mentioned it and I mentioned it here.    Nanos are huge here, so I like to look 'em up elsewhere.  If I'm ever in Lansing, I'll buy you a beer.

Brina

 
Note to self - you exercise so you *can* survive weekends of walking in Boston with your son and his girlfriend...who have the agility and stamina of mountain goats.

So, here's what I did over the weekend:

Friday - drive to Boston from Philly area; do tai chi in the hotel room thanks to my Kindle; meet the boy and his GF in Back Bay, take the T to the North End, walk forever to have dinner, walk forever back to the T, walk from T to car, drive to the hotel.

Saturday - get up, take T from JFK/UMass to Symphony, walk to apartment, walk back to T, take it to Quincy Market, walk for five years to aquarium, walk AROUND aquarium, walk back to T, go back to hotel.  Decide to drive to dinner because CALF MUSCLES.

Sunday - drive home from Boston.  Die on couch with Mass Effect 3 DLC.

Does any of this walking count as exercise...and why are there so many STAIRS in outdoor Boston???

[Dark Midnight]

Does any of this walking count as exercise...and why are there so many STAIRS in outdoor Boston???

 
All of the walking counts as exercise. But I don't have any idea about why there are so many stairs? Sorry.....

[SunflowerP]

Does any of this walking count as exercise...and why are there so many STAIRS in outdoor Boston???

 
I'll just interject that I despise the mindset in which some activities which give muscles a workout and/or increase heart rate and/or burn calories (etc) 'count' as Real Exercise Tee Em, while others do not.  Taken at face value, they're simply nonsensical; taken for what's lurking underneath the face value, they are usually classist, ableist, ageist, and/or sexist (just off the top of my head - other axes of privilege/oppression may also apply). Oh, or puritanical: while enjoying exercise is not forbidden, enjoying them too much makes them insufficiently virtuous to count:rolleye::.

Sunflower

[Sophia C]

I'll just interject that I despise the mindset in which some activities which give muscles a workout and/or increase heart rate and/or burn calories (etc) 'count' as Real Exercise Tee Em, while others do not.  Taken at face value, they're simply nonsensical; taken for what's lurking underneath the face value, they are usually classist, ableist, ageist, and/or sexist (just off the top of my head - other axes of privilege/oppression may also apply). Oh, or puritanical: while enjoying exercise is not forbidden, enjoying them too much makes them insufficiently virtuous to count:rolleye::.

Sunflower

 
Can't disagree with you there. The doctors are always telling me to 'get more exercise', by which they mean things like power-walking and going to the gym which can actually *harm* me. The safe, positive stuff that I do all the time, like gardening and short, gentle walks, are not good enough. Our culture is messed up when it comes to exercise (and weight loss, and body image, and all that related stuff).

[veggiewolf]

I'll just interject that I despise the mindset in which some activities which give muscles a workout and/or increase heart rate and/or burn calories (etc) 'count' as Real Exercise Tee Em, while others do not.  Taken at face value, they're simply nonsensical; taken for what's lurking underneath the face value, they are usually classist, ableist, ageist, and/or sexist (just off the top of my head - other axes of privilege/oppression may also apply). Oh, or puritanical: while enjoying exercise is not forbidden, enjoying them too much makes them insufficiently virtuous to count:rolleye::.

Sunflower

I completely agree.  Hopefully, everyone got that I was being sarcastic.

-veggie, who is off to the pool now

[Chatelaine]

So, what do you do?  Is there something you'd like to do, but haven't started?  Let's post our baby steps toward greater body movement here!

The glandular fever I contracted at the beginning of the year has thrown me completely out of any exercise routine. I've missed three months' worth of ballet classes and nearly as much of yoga sessions. I've put on a few pounds and a good deal of stiffness, both of which make my body feel completely alien. Until recently, I would get winded just walking 100m uphill from the bus stop to my college.

Over Easter break, I pushed myself to get back to doing two Sun Salutations every other day. On the second week (after five sessions of that) I felt well enough to add two Moon Salutations to the mix. Now the walk to school feels normal again.

I'm going to pull up a few yoga videos and up my practice some, and this Friday I'm going back to the ballet studio. I wonder how I'm going to drop the extra pounds, though. I've never been overweight, so I have no idea. And I hate high-impact exercise like running.

[Shadow]

(Hope you don't mind me joining in)

I used to love exercise when I was a teenager and was very active, now though I just seem to struggle to find the motivation or the energy.

I do have some dance games for the PS3, and I love dancing, so my baby step is to attempt to do half hour on one of the games at least 3 times a week.

So the PS3 is not working :grr:

Instead I have been trying some high impact intensity training (which sounds dead posh!) A few times a week I exercise for 18 mins. I do four exercises (running on the spot, squats, push-ups, crunches) at full pelt for 30 seconds each, rest for a minute between them, and repeat each exercise 3 times. It's a killer but it takes so little time that I have found I've got no excuses not to do it